


A Scrap of Metal

by thesilverwitch



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robot, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-02
Updated: 2012-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-30 12:31:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesilverwitch/pseuds/thesilverwitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Steve never survived the crash, Tony builds his own Captain America.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Scrap of Metal

**Author's Note:**

> Not really a warning since the tags and the summary already say enough, but in case you're wondering this is a human/robot relationship so yeah. Don't read if you're not comfortable with that.

He builds. Piece by piece, as carefully as he can manage, Tony builds. The project is more than top secret - _nobody_ can ever know - and since he doesn’t have much free time to begin with, his personal work quickly takes over his life. He builds while he's in the shower, lines and graphs coming together in his head, he builds at four a.m. after two nights without sleep until he passes out, he builds after he destroys a terrorist camp in Iraq with trembling hands but focused thoughts.

He builds when no one’s looking, but then again, nobody ever truly looks at him.

Tony creates each and every single piece, mostly because they don’t exist anywhere else yet, but also because the project is far more personal than anything else he’s ever built. Tony can’t even phantom the idea of somebody else’s dirty hands touching a single piece of the hardware. He knows that if he sold just one piece of his beautiful creation, he would be richer than anyone else in the world, but Tony already has enough money and this is his project. Not anyone else’s.

It’s his, each piece of metal and each screw and each piece of wiring is completely _his_. When Tony finishes building, he thinks he’s left a piece of his soul in it too.

It takes him months to press the “initiate system” button. It’s weird because when he was building it, the only thought circling through Tony’s head was the moment he switched his wonderful creation online. And now there it is – fully assembled and collecting dust on a corner of the workshop.

No bit of it is human, yet it looks more real and natural than anyone Tony knows. From the custom-made red, white and blue clothes to the synthetic skin that took months to design to the golden hair, that’s constantly shining under the workshop’s artificial light. He almost looks too human.

Tony thinks that he could probably trick everyone into believing it’s got a beating heart and nice pair of lungs. Not that he ever will. This is his, and his alone. Nobody will ever know the true story behind his wonderful creation besides himself. Nobody will ever know ST3PH3N’s story. Or has Tony had begun to call him inside his head, _Steve._ Because it’s not just a robot, it can’t be just a robot. Tony loves it so much, how can it be just a robot?

He finally wakes Steve up after a really shitty mission. There had been too many unexpected angles, too many weapons, too many deaths. Tony feels his soul being turned into ashes with each passing second, the pain of failure overcoming everything else. He wants someone to tell him it’s all okay, that it’s not his fault even though in the end, it always is. But there’s nobody there, just like there never was – nobody except Steve, who lies in a metal slab every day and every night, never moving an inch.

The system takes five full minutes to initiate, Tony sips on his scotch as he watches the numbers fly through various digital screens. Countless lines of code are stringed together in front of his eyes, each little piece falling into place inside Steve’s RAM.

When the moment comes, and Steve finally wakes up, he does it in the most humane way Tony could ever dream of, his eyes slowly blinking awake as if he had been in a deep sleep for many years. It takes him a couple of seconds to sit up, but when he does Tony’s breathless.

For a fraction of a second, Tony forgets it’s just a robot – artificial intelligence at its best, because the machine in front of him looks everything like Captain Steve Rogers, and he talks and walks like Steve Rogers did in his small clips from the war. They share the same opinions, the same smile, the same personality according to everything Tony has ever read, and he’s read a lot. They share everything except for a heart.

The funniest thing is that it never crosses Tony’s mind that maybe, he’s got it wrong, maybe what is in front of him isn’t Steve Rogers at all, maybe Steve Rogers was only a war poster boy, never even real. He doesn’t think about it because the idea that his most prized dream - that his deepest obsession - is fake is simply too much for his addictive mind to handle. Tony doesn’t question it, but it’s okay, because it wouldn’t make a difference if he did. He’s already gone too far to go back.

Steve has his own mind. Tony knew he could have built him to obey his every whim and desire, but he didn’t, because he wanted something real. He wasn’t looking for another mindless person in his life who would comply to all of his requests, Tony already had that, everywhere he looked there was only _that_.

Tony wanted someone to care for him, not because they felt obliged to, but because they genuinely cared for him. This meant that there were chances of Steve hating Tony, hating every fiber of Tony’s weak body and coward mind, and if he did Tony wouldn’t be able to make it through. But he’s Steve, and Steve is kind and generous and amazing, and Steve would never leave him.

Tony’s robot takes a small look around the room from where he’s sitting before his eyes settle on Tony. He already knows where, why and how he’s there and who he is. Steve thinks he’s the real Captain America, with a heart and a brain, who fell in the ice after saving the world from the Nazis, and who remained in a deep cryogenic sleep until Tony’s team found him.

The real Captain America never survived the ice, dying of hypothermia twenty seven hours after the crash. Twenty seven hours completely alone, his body frozen but his mind fully working. Howard Stark, Tony’s dad, had found his body fifteen years later, not having aged a single day, and entirely motionless as he hugged a small box to his chest. The box contained a mix of photographs of Steve and the Howling Commandos, Steve and Bucky, Steve and Howard.

Tony was only five when they found him, but he still remembers watching his father cry as he drowned in a glass of whiskey.

Steve stares at Tony for a couple of seconds, and Tony stares back. The computers around him tell him exactly what Steve’s thinking, but Tony doesn’t dare to look at them, because Steve’s no longer just a machine Tony can open and change now. He’s real.

Steve gets up, takes a few measured steps before he falls next to where Tony’s sitting, and gives Tony a hug. It lasts for more than Tony can think, it lasts an eternity. Steve’s so warm against Tony, he’s not meant to be because he’s a machine, just a coldhearted machine with no heart at all, but he’s so warm. He’s the warmest Tony’s ever felt and that’s how it all begins, right then and there, that’s how Tony begins to forget Steve’s just a machine.

Initially, Steve’s just a friend. He stays in the guest room and him and Tony talk, they talk every day and they talk until Tony collapses and Steve falls into a programmed sleep schedule. They talk about Tony, about the world, about Steve, they talk about everything and the best part is how Steve seems to be so real. He shows distaste, happiness, kindness, like Tony’s always dreamed.

One day Steve kisses Tony, when they’re sitting on the couch and watching old action movies from the 60’s. Tony practically melts into Steve, each touch making him feel cared for, each kiss making him feel loved. It’s wonderful. It’s humane. It’s the happiest Tony’s ever been.

Tony doesn’t want anyone to see Steve, of course he doesn’t, but people eventually do. At first, just the housemaids who come once a week and who find Tony and Steve, lying in each other’s arms on Tony’s bed. Tony slightly panics; afraid someone might have found out his secret, might have found out his sick and twisted fantasy. But the maids think he’s just another one night stand, and pay him no attention.

Steve knows he can’t tell anyone who he thinks he is. Tony had warned him about the government and his blood and every other conspiracy theory he could think of all mixed into one big fancy lie. So there’s no risk of him running his mouth as he and Tony go to the grocery store. In fact, there seems to be no risk at all. Nobody recognizes Steve, of course they don’t, to them Captain America is nothing but a dead hero from the war, just like so many others.

Everybody thinks he’s human, and it doesn’t take him long for Tony start thinking it to.

Steve’s there, he’s always there like nobody else had ever been. He’s perfect, he’s everything to Tony. He doesn’t have a heart, but Tony loves him so much. He doesn’t have a mind, but Tony trusts him with every fiber of his body. He’s just a piece of advanced mechanics, but Tony knows he’s more than that.

Every time Steve touches him, it’s like being on the most amazing rollercoaster on the planet. It sends tiny shocks down his skin, which make his brain melt under Steve’s hands. Every hug and every kiss, every stroke and every thrust make Tony feel more alive than he’s ever felt before.

Steve doesn’t get tired, he thinks it’s because of the serum but in reality Steve will never get tired, there’s enough vibranium inside his chest to last a hundred lifetimes. He can fuck Tony for hours, and sometimes he does, with Tony riding his cock, his neck thrown back and his mouth open as he moans. The night falls around them, but they don’t see it, they don’t care.

“I love you.” Steve says, and Tony deep down knows that he shouldn’t. He knows it’s all a lie and he should back away and run and enter an asylum and try to forget it all. But he can’t. Because Steve’s the only warm thing in the world.

“I love you too.”


End file.
